The director Arnold Fanck made a name a a filmmaker of mountain movies
from the 20's, a genre which was created by him. The shootings were often
entailed with great strains - not only for the technicians but also for
the actors who were demanded till to their boundaries - which required
a good physical condition. As a pionier of the open-air filming and mountain
movies Arnold Fanck went down in the German film history.

During the childhood of Arnold Fanck there was no hint for his future
career. As a child he suffered from asthma, later he got tuberculosis.
After the final examination of his education died his father in 1906
and the family went to Freiburg where Arnold Fanck discovered skiing for
himself and with it the fascination of nature he explored as a climber
and photographer.

During World War I he first served as a first-aid man, later he came
to the forging department of the German intelligence service where he worked
with photographic gadgets. He also developed some of them.

After the war he earned his money as a carpet trader and was able to
afford his first film camera. The cinematographer Sepp Allgeier introduced
him into this technique. In 1920 Fanck founded together with Dr. Deodatus
Tauern the Berg- and Sportfilm GmbH Freiburg, also a member of the company
was Sepp Allgeier who shot Arnold Fanck's first movies.
To Arnold Fanck's first works as a director belong "Das Wunder des
Schneeschuhs" (20), "Im Kampf mit dem Berge" (21), "Die weisse Kunst" (24)
and "Der Berg des Schicksals" (24). Fanck was not only a director but also
was a producer, writer, editor and sometimes a cinematographer for his
movies.
Luis Trenker made his film debut with Fanck's "Der Berg des Schicksals"
(24). He later became a very popular movie star in the 30's with his own
mountain movies and his popularity continued till his death.

Arnold Fanck changed from the feature films to documentaries from the
middle of the 30's. After the movie "Der ewige Traum" (34) and the documentary
"Höchstleistungen im Skilauf" (35) he went to Japan and South America
where he made the documentaries "Die Tochter des Samurai" (36), "Bilder
von Japans Küsten" (36), "Die Wildnis stirbt" (36), "Kaiserbauten
in Fernost" (38), "Von Patagonien nach Feuerland" (40) and "Japans heiliger
Vulkan" (41).

Although Arnold Fanck refused to become a member of the NSDAP 1933 but
was able to continue his work in Germany. Only in 1940 he had to give to
the pressure and became a member. To his works at that time belong
among others the documentaries "Josef Thorak, Werkstatt und Werk" (43)
and "Arno Breker" (44).
When he was obliged for the Volkssturm in 1945 he fled from Berlin
and lived in Freiburg.

Arnold Fanck was not able to revive his film career after the war, interested
parties failed to come. Only his script for "Föhn" (50) and the movies
"Tetje und Fiedje" (56) and "Der weisse Rausch - einst und jetzt" (65)
were realised.